That will cost him around 275,000 euros! Ermedin Demirovic is living up to a big promise at VfB Stuttgart

"If we pull this off, I’ll buy a round for the whole of Stuttgart," the VfB striker had confidently announced in an interview with Sky ahead of the play-offs. "Then the fans will be on me for drinks."

However, the fact that Stuttgart’s supporters can now look forward to free beer was the result of a hard-fought effort. In both the semi-final against Wales and the final against Italy, the Bosnians initially found themselves trailing, only managing to equalise 1-1 in the closing stages through Edin Dzeko and Haris Tabakovic respectively, before going on to win both matches in penalty shoot-outs.

Demirovic and his teammates were understandably delighted immediately after their victory over Italy, with the forward enthusiastically announcing on Sky: “I’ll buy a round, with love,” because, after all, “a man’s word is his bond. It’ll probably be expensive. But after a win like this, I’ll do it with love. So, Stuttgart: I’m buying a round!”

Demirovic will be able to cope with it, even though his announcement could cost him around 275,000 euros, if you divide the price per drink of around five euros by the roughly 55,000 home fans at the MHP Arena.

Until then, however, Demirovic wants to take some time to process what has been achieved, because “we don’t even realise yet what we’ve done for our country. It’s surreal. I have no words and no voice. It’s unbelievable.”